Five local environmentalists were honored Saturday night by Sustainable Resilient Longmont, which awarded them the fifth-annual Longmont Sustainability Awards.
The Sustainability Awards gathering is Sustainable Resilient Longmont’s top fundraiser. The nonprofit reached its Saturday night goal of raising $10,000. SRL has yet to reach the end-of-year fundraising goal of $25,000.
The Sustainability Awards are given to five “environmental champions” who practice daily to reduce harmful emissions, according to organizers.
The winners this year were picked using the three pillars of sustainability upon which the nonprofit was founded: environmental protection, responsible economic growth, and social equity, Naomi Curland of Sustainable Resilient Longmont said.
The winners are:
- Lacey Ankenman was voted Volunteer of the Year. Ankenman stepped up as a "super" volunteer for SRL, serving on the nonprofit's Renewable Energy Committee, volunteering at events, taking hundreds of photographs to document the group's community work, and helping develop a new website, scheduled to launch in early 2023, Curland said via email.
- Astrid Villalobos Chavez got the Youth Environmental Stewardship award for her work as the sustainability program assistant for the city of Longmont. Chavez — a Front Range Community College graduate - was cited for helping small business owners promote sustainable practices. She is also a intern with the Latino Chamer of Commerce and former co-chair of the Longmont Chamber of Commerce Student Network, Curland said.
- Charles Kamenides, waste services manager of the city of Longmont, was picked as Public Servant of the Year. Kamenides joined the city of Longmont staff in 2004, and over the course of his career he has advocated for increasing diversion services to to reduce landfill waste, as well as other measures to reduce environmental pollutants, such as the development of Longmont's biogas facility, which converts the methane emitted from the city's Wastewater Treatment Plant into renewable natural gas, which then powers waste service trucks that used to run on diesel, Curland said.
- Iris Prieto Medina won the Community Sustainability Leadership award. Medina is a community Promotora and founder of HOLA, an organization to facilitate connections and share events and information within Longmont's Hispanic/Latino community, Curland said. Medina is a member of the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Boulder County, works for the OUR Center, and co-owns Taco Star in Longmont. Taco Star was recently cited by the EPA for its work in sustainability practices
- Andrew Lutsch was given the Inspirational Lifestyle award for using his bike as a primary mode of transportation. Lutsch works in Denver and about 5-6 years ago started doing the "last mile" bicycle commute between his home and the LD/LX bus to Denver and from Union Station to his office. Since then, Lutsch has fully embraced the utillitarian bicycle lifestyle, riding his bike to daily errands, to health care visits, to meet up with friends and to particpate in a variety of social rides, Curland said.
